Rock opera

The Who's Tommy, the first album explicitly billed as a rock opera

A rock opera or rock musical is a musical production in the form of an opera or a musical in a modern rock and roll style rather than more traditional forms. It differs from conventional rock and roll albums, which often feature songs that are unrelated in plot or story with each other, but overlaps considerably with concept albums and song cycles. More recent developments include metal opera, rap opera, and hip-hopera.

Which of these categories a particular work falls into is largely defined by the intent and self-definition of the work by its creator. The formal distinction may be that the rock opera tells a coherent (if sometimes sketchy) story, often with first-person lyrics sung by characters, while a concept album or song cycle sets a mood or maintains a theme, but some albums share aspects of both of these cases.

The rock musical is generally first performed as a theatrical production rather than appearing as an album, has little or no identification with a particular band and a generally stronger air of show business. Pertinent examples of rock musicals are Rent or Hair. The categories are flexible to some degree; however, the theatrical performance material tends to specifically fall into the second category. Tommy, one of the best known rock operas, also had a rock musical production.

Early history

What appears to be the first actual experiment in rock opera - officially accepted and so baptized by all major musical press in Italy - is Then an Alley, also known as The Beat Opera, conceived and staged by Tito Schipa, Jr., composer and director, son of the tenor Tito Schipa, at the Piper Club in Rome, in May 1967. Schipa Jr. adapted 18 Bob Dylan songs to fit into a scenic background, and eventually wrote and staged at the Sistina Theater in Rome, the work Orfeo 9. This was the first original Italian rock opera and probably the first in the world to be staged, in January 1970. Orfeo 9 became a double album and a film under the musical direction of Academy Award winner Bill Conti.

The earliest example of a theatrical production that incorporated rock and pop music was Hair, a hippie-themed musical subtitled "The American Tribal Love/Rock Musical" that made its debut in late 1967. Much like Jesus Christ Superstar, the first notable rock musical after Hair, it was very controversial in its day. Jesus Christ Superstar, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice was first recorded as a concept album in 1970 and the money made from album sales was used to fund the subsequent stage production in late 1971. The musical Godspell which was written after Jesus Christ Superstar but was actually staged before it, had similar religious themes (albeit much less controversial) and pop/rock influences. Also premiering in 1971 was Mass, a musical play by well-respected composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein which featured a rock band performing rock and blues music and included lyrics written by Godspell composer Stephen Schwartz. The rock musical declined in popularity in the late 1970s and '80s but achieved a renaissance in the '90s, due in no small part to the popularity of Jonathan Larson's Tony- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent.

Rock opera

Pete Townshend, both with and without his band The Who, is arguably the single artist most associated with the term rock opera. The earliest example of the form was seen in the track "A Quick One While He's Away" from The Who's second album, A Quick One (1966), a nine-minute suite of short songs telling the operatic story of the seduction of a young girl guide (Townshend) by an engine driver named Ivor (played by John Entwistle).

Townshend's inspiration

The Epic features as the second side on People!'s January 1968 Capitol records album "I Love You" [1] with a more comprehensive selection available on "Best Of People! Vol 1 - 40 Year Anniversary" [2].

According to rock historian Wally Rasmussen, Pete Townshend openly acknowledged that ... (The Epic) served as the inspiration for the Who's Tommy, providing him with both the basic idea of "rock opera" and also an essential plot line (involving a misunderstood messianic–like, charismatic leader. Townshend portrayed him as a disabled child who is molested and overcomes it by becoming a pinball champion, even though he is deaf dumb and blind.)." One of the songs that People! performed on that tour was "Organ Grinder" which is about a child molester in the Panhandle Park at Haight Ashbury., along with their performance of The Epic. The inspiration for “Tommy” came to Pete Townshend when The Who was on tour with People! in 27 cities, mostly in the south: Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Lousiana and 22 other cities.

Pete Townshend would stand off to the side, behind the curtain, and frequently watch the opera. Toward the end of the tour Townshend was sitting with the People! drummer, Dennis Fridkin – who co–wrote the rock opera with Larry Norman – and Townshend said he was going to go home and try to write his own rock opera. And he did. On the Isle of Wight he spent half a year creating the classic music of “Tommy”.

Several years after it debuted, Fridkin and Townshend met again and were talking. Pete told Denny that the People! performance was his inspiration for “Tommy”. But at different times in the press, Townshend has said his inspiration came from The Pretty Things "S.F. Sorrow" and various other groups.

S.F. Sorrow

In 1968 The Pretty Things released S.F. Sorrow, thought to be the first attempt at a single thematic concept expressed over an album's worth of songs. Less than a year later The Who returned with Tommy, the first album explicitly billed as a rock opera. Tommy remains one of the most famous rock operas, with concert, film and theatrical productions mounted over the course of three decades. The Who would later release another rock opera, Quadrophenia, also made into a film, and a mini rock-opera, Wire & Glass.

Townshend may also be the originator of the term itself. In 1966, he played a comedy tape to his friends called Gratis Amatis. One of his friends made the comment that the odd song was "rock opera". Kit Lambert, the Who's producer, is than believed to have said "Now there's an idea!" However, the July 4, 1966 edition of RPM Magazine (published in Toronto) notes that "Bruce Cockburn and Mr [William] Hawkins are working on a Rock Opera, operating on the premise that to write you need only 'something to say'."

Ten years later, Pink Floyd enjoyed similar success with their rock opera The Wall, written primarily by Roger Waters, which became the third best-selling album of all time. As with Tommy, The Wall has been staged both by Pink Floyd (1980-81) and Waters (1990) as an incredibly elaborate concert, with Waters' version taking place at the Berlin Wall. The plot was also used in an eponymous feature film, and Waters is currently adapting the story for a Broadway-style production.

More recently, metal bands have released albums inspired by rock operas. These albums followed the established style and form of rock operas often in a progressive metal framework. They also overlap considerably with the notion of metal concept albums. Dream Theater, Ayreon and Pain of Salvation are a few examples of metal bands that released metal opera albums that could actually be staged. In 2000-2002, Tobias Sammet of Edguy released a two-part "metal opera" entitled Avantasia with a strong fantasy theme and featuring many guest singers and musicians.

Notable rock operas best known as studio albums

For a more extensive list for rock operas see the list of rock operas.

• The Who, Tommy (1969): The album which arguably popularized the term rock opera. Later a movie and revival as well, in a Broadway production.

• The Who, Quadrophenia (1973): Later made into a movie.

• Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (1974): A double-album that would be performed live, in its entirety, 102 times on the band's ensuing world tour, with frontman Peter Gabriel (who wrote the album's underlying story and the lyrics for almost all the tracks) in character as the album's protagonist Rael.

• Pink Floyd, The Wall (1979): Famous rock opera by Roger Waters, following the nervous breakdown of a rocker named "Pink". Well known for its extensive and expensive stage show. Later made into a movie, and currently being planned to be a Broadway show.

• Husker Du, Zen Arcade (1984): A double-album that tells the story of a child running away from home but then comes to realize that the outside world is much worse than expected. He then wakes up to realize it was all a dream.

• Green Day, American Idiot (2004): A movie version is rumored to be in the works.

Notable rock operas best known as stage productions

For a more extensive list for rock musicals see the list of rock musicals.

• James Rado, Gerome Ragni and Galt MacDermot, Hair (1967): A thematic look at 1960's hippie culture.

• Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jesus Christ Superstar (1970): A telling of the final weeks in the life of Jesus Christ with a focus on the character of Judas Iscariot.

• Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, Evita (1976): A musical based on the lives of Argentinian political figures Juan and Eva Perón.

• Jonathan Larson, Rent (1996): A New York City based modern interpretation of Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème.

These lists are not complete and do not include song cycles or concept albums that often include some of the characteristics of rock operas and/or rock musicals, or musical revues working new plots around existing songs.

See also

• Wagnerian Rock, a Rock opera genre created by Jim Steinman
• List of rock operas
• List of rock musicals
• Concept album
• Concept EP

External links

• Original rock musicals and/or operas on the Internet
• Strong Bad Email #125 "rock opera"
• Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra A rock super-group based in Boston whose shows include numerous covers of rock opera songs, and an original rock opera, "Will We Rock You?"